Here are the last of the pictures from my most recent roll of Cinestill 400D, shot on my Pentax K-1000 and 100mm macro lens.
These shots were taken at a park I traveled to with the express purpose of finishing off this roll of film.
I’m a bit overdramatic about how safe the park is because of the events recorded here, wherein I escaped death due to sheer luck and despite lacking a decent sense of self-preservation.
It had been raining heavily in the days leading up to my visit, and in fact, had been raining on and off during my visit.
So the first shot I took was of a large, beautiful rainbow. Can you see it?
I promise it is there. With Cinestill and this scan, it’s like those novelty posters where you have to look at it through your periphery in order to see it. It was more visible in real life. f11, 1/60 sec.
This turned out nicely. I’m really happy at how the ripples were captured. And as an added bonus: halation at the top right! f6.8, 1/125 sec.
This one isn’t quite as striking, but I still like it. f5.6, 1/125 sec.
And there it is. That sweet, sweet halation. I don’t know why I like the effect so much, but I do. f5.6, 1/125 sec.
I wanted to capture the sign, isolated by the surrounding chain link fence. I think it would work better with more contrast, and I might come back to this image and try some edits. f5.6, 1/250 sec.
I crossed a bridge with a series of murals painted on it. I decided to use this bright, cheerful panel for a shadow self-portrait. f8, 1/500 sec.
And that’s a wrap on this roll.
Lessons learned: if the goal is halation, I really need a lot of sunlight. Which means that if it’s overcast or mostly cloudy, I have to give up on the halation. From a strictly color reproduction perspective, I like ColorPlus 200, Kodacolor 200, and, slightly less, Kodacolor 400 more than Cinestill. But those emulsions don’t give me halation. So I really need to know, before loading the film, what I’m shooting for (ha ha, see what I did there?). Which can be hard if I know it will take me more than one session or day to finish off the roll.
I still like Cinestill, but I think despite it being ISO 400, this is a film I’d prefer in brighter conditions where I could also get away with a slower film. It works in darker conditions, but doesn’t have as much flare.
I continue to showcase, if that’s the right word, some of the pictures from my most recent roll of Cinestill 400D, shot on my Pentax K-1000 and 100mm macro lens.
This next bunch of shots were taken at home.
Regular readers will recognize the recurring characters from other posts.
Those other posts are all cell phone camera photos, and frankly, they don’t hold a candle to these when it comes to image quality and sharpness.
Though maybe on color…
On one of my morning walks, I brought the Pentax with me and shot both on film and cell phone. I’m sure my neighbors have some uncharitable questions about the weirdo feeding crows and taking pictures with a zoom lens, but so far only one has come out to talk to me.
(On this walk, in fact, and as he had no issues with what I was doing, I think he’s just as ‘off’ as I am.)
This is my favorite of the three shots I took with crows on this roll. I’ll include one other, but neither of them hold a candle to this one. f5.6, 1/60 sec.
The problem with crows is that they’re so dark. Any attempt to get any detail from these distances would lead to an extremely washed out image. Even as it was, I exposed more than the meter, confused as it was by the bright background, called for. f5.6, 1/60 sec.
And while the crows are easily recognized as regulars on this blog, one can’t forget the other supporting cast: the flowers.
It’s funny. For red flowers, my cell phone regularly over-saturates, creating images with iridescent reds that burn your retinas. The Cinestill did this too, but in a more orange direction. I guess red is a challenging color to capture, digitally and on emulsion… f4, 1/60 sec.
Not sure what I mean about the red reproduction? Here’s the cell phone picture for comparison (though the difference is more obvious on my cell phone screen):
Neither red is accurate. They’re both too bright and intense. Though the Cinestill feels more washed out or ‘old photo-graphy’, if that makes sense.
There’s a large shrub I pass on my walk that produces tiny blue flowers. The blues are more subdued than real life. f4, 1/60 sec.
And the cell phone picture, which is also more subdued than real life, but much closer than the Cinestill.
I like these types of flowers. With the thick, column-like petals, there’s a real sense of depth to them. My two regrets here are that I didn’t get in closer, and that I shot handheld and had less control over focus. The color reproduction isn’t … controversial, but definitely more subdued that real life. f4, 1/60 sec.
And my favorite flower shot on the roll. A pink rose. There is a softness and duskiness to the image you don’t get on digital. In fact, in my cell phone photo, it’s a searing hot pink. It hurts my eyes so much I will NOT be posting it here for comparison. f4, 1/60 sec.
I think my key takeaway here is that for color reproduction, I prefer Kodacolor over Cinestill. But Kodacolor 200 over Kodacolor 400. And I don’t think ISO 200 film would have been fast enough with this lens and lighting conditions.
Sigh. Maybe I should consider using a flash? I haven’t tried that yet with macro photos. I suppose it would work.
Next time: a trip to a park that, almost assuredly in a different timeline, killed me.
ian m dudley 